"The release of GNOME 3.0. the popular desktop's first major release in eight years, promises to be the major free software event in autumn 2010. Where is GNOME now? What can we expect of GNOME 3.0? Of GNOME 3 as a series of releases?"

I mean the fact that Windows7 has smashed records for being the biggest selling OS of all time.

I wont go into the in's and out's of this as I've already made my thoughts on this very clear - back when the topic was originally announced on OSNews. But I will say that this record couldn't have been achieved on pre-installs alone.